REVIEWS. 
45 
“11. A detailed examination of the Bergs-fiord, Jokuls-fiord, andQven- 
anger range has been already recommended (page 84). 
“12. Every opportunity should be taken to ascertain the direction of the 
abraiding and smoothing agency, which has left such extraordinary traces 
along the coast between the Throndhjem-fiord and the Lofoddens ; and in 
general it should be sought to observe how far the strife correspond or not 
in direction with the general declivity of the ground, or whether they are 
in any case extensively parallel with the coast. 
“ 13. The limits of vegetation of the birch and the snow line should be 
observed wherever practicable; but, with regard to the latter, the great 
difficulty of ascertaining the extreme limit of recession of the snow should 
be borne in mind; and the time of year, the character of the season, and 
the exposure should be particularly noticed. 
“ 14. The meteorology of Norway is in a state which is not creditable to 
the acknowledged intelligence of the people and the eminence of its scien¬ 
tific men. I know of but two places—Christiania and Kaa-fiord (separated 
by 10° of latitude)—of which the mean temperature is known with any 
accuracy. This is lamentable in a country whose climate is one of the 
most interesting in Europe. The means of remedying it seems easy. Let 
observations, in the first instance, be confined to the thermometer. It is 
impossible to doubt that a net-work, of say fifty stations, might be quickly 
established over the entire country. The intelligent officers of the Royal 
Marine and Trigonometrical Survey, the clergy (who have almost all had a 
university education), the masters of schools and academies—like my well- 
informed friend, Mr. Blom, at Tromsb—the active magistrates and civil 
officers, even the station holders and substantial merchants on the steam¬ 
boat routes, would, probably, in many instances, lend a cheerful aid to so 
simple and interesting an inquiry; whilst the combination of the results could 
not be placed in better hands than those of the professors of Christiania.” 
In chapter IX. the philosophic Professor shows how the temperature of 
Norway is favourably modified by the heat brought northward by the 
currents of the great Atlantic, clearly explaining the apparently anomalous 
distribution of the isothermal lines, a phenomenon which makes Norway 
comfortably inhabitable, while a country of similar latitude, in the southern 
hemisphere, would be a desert waste. In this work many interesting obser¬ 
vations will be found as to the limit of growth, in elevation, of certain plants; 
he also shows how the simple peasants there, like our own, do not under¬ 
stand how men climb mountains and endure privations merely for the love 
of knowledge. The book, though known as Forbes’s Norway, has appended 
to it excursions in the high Alps of Dauphine, Berne, and Savoy. 
